Saving Link
by Lit. Addict2
Summary: For all his life Link has had a deep secret, a secret that only three other people knew and two of them are dead. Now can his love for Zelda over come his dark past and his deep secret in time for him to save her? Mature, Queer, Love (New characters and story line... It's very different from what you're used to...)
1. Chapter 1

Part One

I woke aching all over, my breast were sore in a familiar way from the binding I've put them through for the past couple of years. I rolled out of bed and stretched, my breasts rose uncomfortably as my back arched. I walked over to the kitchen table, there was a note laying in the center, 'From Zelda' it said on the outside. I smirked to myself and picked the note up, "Wait." Navi yelled zipping in through the window.

"What do you want now Navi?" I asked sighing. I turned to the flying blue fairy with irritation clear on my face.

"I just want to be here when you open your latest love note." Navi flitted behind my head and pulled at my shaggy blonde hair, "Open it."

I shook my head, flicking my hair in her face then turned the note over and opened the flap. "If you ever want to see princess Zelda again drop off 1,000 rupees to the ancient oak in the Lost Woods. You've got two days."

Navi swooped in front of my face, "Uh oh this isn't good…"

I sighed and turned towards the chest next to my bed. I had exactly 1,000 rupees saved for when I finally plucked up the courage to ask Zelda on a date… I guessed saving her butt (again) was a good way to spend it too. "Come on Navi." I called over my shoulder after stuffing the rupees in my bag, and rebinding myself before throwing on a ragged green shirt. I slid down the rope connected to one of the branches of my tree house instead of wasting time on the stairs and started jogging towards the haunted forest.

"LINK WAIT!" A panicked shout came from behind me. I turned to see Zelda's Head Steward Steve sprinting after me. I stopped jogging and waited for him to catch up, "Thanks for stopping." he gasped when he stumbled up next to me. After regaining his breath he grabbed my arm and looked into my eyes pleading, "Zelda's been kidnapped." I rolled my eyes and shrugged his hand off my arm and turned to start jogging for the forest again.

"I know." I called back to him. "I'm going to save her, don't worry." I continued jogging towards the fence that separated the rest of Kakariko Village. There was only one way in and out of the forest since the Shadow Beast Massacre, the gate was guarded 24/7 by one of the Hylian Imperial Guards.

I turned west towards the gate opening and smiled when I saw it was old Ben who was guarding the gate today. Technically no one was allowed into the Lost Woods anymore for fear that people go in there just to commit suicide but old Ben and I had an agreement. "Ho, there Link!" he called across the meadow when he spotted me. I waved over to him and slowed into a calm walk coming up in front of him.

"Hey there Ben, how's the knee." Ben had been an adventurer before he took an arrow to the knee 20 years back.

He patted his right knee lovingly, "It aches when there's a storm brewing but besides that it hasn't acted up once, thanks for that salve by the way."

I nodded my head and looked out at the Lost Woods, "I gotta get through Ben someone's kidnapped the Queen and left a ransom note in my house." I let the gravity of those words sink if for a couple of minutes. Ben stared at me confused, he knew just as well as I that no one got into my house without my knowledge, no one.

"I'm so sorry Link," he sighed rubbing his face, "but they've cracked down on the no entry to the Woods policy." His face was red with shame when he finally looked me in the eye, "I can't let you through old friend." I sighed frustrated, the fence itself was a small thing, normally jumping over it wouldn't be a problem, but they'd spelled it so that anything greater then 20 pounds going over it would be zapped and then petrified till the gate guard came over to check it out. "But," old Ben whispered staring at his toes, "if you were to attack and overpower me and then use the pendant around my neck to go through," he looked at my eyes and stared intently, "well there wouldn't be anything I could do about that would there."

I smiled at him, "Sorry old man." I said before I knocked him out with a punch to his temple. **I** carefully stepped over his prone body, bent to pick up the pendant, and started off at a slow jog, Navi fluttered behind me flitting back and forth over my shoulders.


	2. Chapter 2

Part Two

"So," she said in her bell like voice, "are you going to tell Zelda?" I didn't ask her what I was going to tell Zelda about, I knew where she was thinking. She had been trying to get me to tell Zelda my "actual gender".

"Not now, Navi." I muttered glaring up at her blue form. It wasn't because I didn't want to tell Zelda, I did, I was in love with her, I just didn't know how to explain it to her. Ever since I was little I've been Link, a boy. How do you explain to someone who grew up being a girl what it's like growing up being a boy, even though you're "actually" a girl. 'Oh hey Zelda, btw I've got a vagina and tits and every time I see you I go all wet. Just thought you should know!' yea that would go over great…. I sighed, "Navi it was hard enough for me to explain to you, and you've been with me almost my whole life." I shook my head. No, I just can't tell her.

"You're just being a scaredy pants." Navi admonished sternly, "She'll understand, and even if she doesn't she'll still love you." Navi flitted angrily behind my head her wings buzzing closer to my ears then was comfortable. "I mean how hard can it be for you to say, Hey Zelda, you know how most boys are born with a penis? Well Im a special case, I was born with parts like you." She bumped into the back of my head making me stumble then zipped past me muttering "Stupid humans, making every thing so complicated."

I smiled a little to myself and kept jogging at the same pace knowing that she'd calm down eventually. The giant trees of the Lost Woods loomed ahead of me, instead of getting anxious, I felt relieved. It was really hot out in the sun and my binder was making my skin itch, I could feel a heat rash starting on my ribs. That train of thought led me straight back to telling Zelda of my, oddities. I remembered all of the questions that Navi asked me, "Does that mean that you want a penis?" and "Wait, let me try to understand, do you hate your girl parts?" The answer to both was no, which brought on another question, "If you don't want a penis why not just be a girl?" And that was the hardest one to answer, "Why not just be a girl?" Ever since I was little I've been a boy. I remember hanging with the boys at the park, going to the boy's bathroom, taking all of the boy's classes, it was just natural. My parents told me I was a boy, it wasn't until I saw a girl naked that I realized the truth and by that time my parents were already dead so I never got to ask them why they lied to me. I even thought that maybe my parents lied because they were trying to protect me from something, but when I asked the villagers, they all said that my parents moved here from some far off country with three year old me in their arms and Navi not trailing far behind. But when I looked up my family's immigration records it showed the name of a country not on any map that I had ever seen. I sighed and shook my head, this thinking was getting me nowhere. I looked around, I was just passing the first trees of the Wood, the temperature was dropping and I could feel the sweat built up in my binder slowly cooling off. Navi was still ahead of me, so I sped up a little to stay in pace with her.

"The Ancient Oak isn't far off now," Navi said to me when I caught up, "You ready to save the day again?" I smiled up at her recognizing a truce when I heard one. "I'm excited," she said with a slight pink glow tinting her blue body, "we haven't been out saving people in forever." I laughed out loud and shook my head at her. "What?" she asked confused.

"You're excited because you're not the one that gets beat up all the time." I said shrewishly.

She tinkled with laughter and spun around my head. "You're right, but it's also a lot of fun to watch the girls fawn and your feet and see you get really uncomfortable." She lowered till she was sitting on my shoulder and whispered conspiratorially in my ear, "Especially when it's Zelda who's making advances at poor innocent Link."

My face heated and I pushed her off my shoulder embarrassed. I turned to the right around one of the oaks, and slowed slightly, the Ancient was only a few yards ahead of me. There was no sign of Zelda's blonde hair anywhere. "Navi," I said slowly, "I'm going to stand here for a couple of minutes, you go circle around the Oak and see if you can find any traps." She took off without question. We learned to do this after one to many handicapping episodes of just running head first into a meeting place. I opened my pack and pushed the bag of rupees out of my way to take out my trusty boomerang, and a couple of the bombs that were a gift from my old friend Medigoron. I looked up to see Navi zipping towards me.

She landed in my lap and gave a tired sigh, "There aren't any booby-traps that I could see," she shook her head, "but I've got a bad feeling about this Link."

I patted her head soothingly and stood slowly, shaking my shoulders and rolling my head. "Well there's nothing for it," I turned towards the Oak, "we'll just have to deal with what ever pops up." I ran up to the Ancient Oak and took the rupees out of my pack waiting for the sender of the letter to show himself. I leaned my back against the trunk of the Oak and closed my eyes. I slowly calmed my heart, and steadied my breathing, letting my focus drift and my mind wander knowing that whoever was going to come was going to make a grand entrance and my not watching would really tick them off.

Not two seconds after that thought flitted through my head loud trumpets and drums started going off to my left and a deep voice announced the arrival of my rival. "Stand in Awe of the Great and Powerful Ganondette."

I sighed and opened my eyes, the only similarities that Dette had with her father were the red hair, and the red eyes. Dette was beautiful; no one could ever say anything different. Her flame red hair flowed silkily down to her waist, her large red eyes were kohled to look bigger, and her lips were painted a duller red. Her body was, too put it bluntly it looked like it belonged to one of the pin up girls that the Guards kept pictures of in their lockers. Her legs were long and muscled just enough for definition, her abdomen, left bare by the tight black shirt, was toned and tan. Her neck was long and graceful, and her hands were dainty with short red painted nails. She sat upon her large charger with all regality of a Princess, which she was in her own right. After her father died, Dette inherited all the rights to the Desert Kingdom that her father had come from, unfortunately she also inherited the grudge against me. "Hullo Dette." I said a little sadly.

Her large red eyes flashed at me with unconcealed rage, "Don't you call me that," her voice was venomous, "I'm here to kill you and all that nonsense."

I looked at her a little confused, "Wait, I thought you kidnapped Zelda…" I looked out in to her posse trying to find the face that I so adored.

She looked back at me just as confused, "What, no. Of course I don't have her. I'm here because of the challenge that I got from you." She reached into her bag and pulled out a letter, one that looked strikingly like the one that I had received. "Dear Ganondette, I challenge you to a battle of honor, lets prove once and for all that I'm just better then you are." She paused to glare icily at me again, "You've got two days to meet me at the Ancient Oak in the Lost Woods."

I sighed and let my body thunk against the trunk of the Oak. I pulled my own letter out of my bag, "I got a letter just like you did Dette, but mine says that the only way I can get Zelda back is to come here with 1,000 rupees. I think we've been conned into showing up here by a common enemy."

Dette looked down at me with suspicion and opened her mouth to say something when we both heard laughter coming from the path leading back to my village. "Good job Link." a silky voice cooed, "You figured that out faster then I thought possible for you." The voice was none other then Zelda's head steward. I looked at him with shock, "What," he asked with a slimy laughter in his voice, "surprised to see me? Surprised that the evil mastermind of the brilliant plot was none other then poor sniveling Steve Head Steward to Princess Zelda of Hyrule." at the end, Steve's voice took on the normal panicky tone that I was used to. "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you," His voice shook with rage, "but it's just pathetic old me here for revenge. And I'll get it, you Stupid, Ignorant, Blithering, LOVE STRUCK, TRANS-oof" Steve's voice cut off painfully when my boomerang smacked him square in his lips. He fell painfully to the ground with a loud thump.

I walked calmly over to stand above him, "Now, now Steve." I said coolly before placing my foot directly on his sternum and slowly crouching so that my face was only about a foot above his. "Let's not start this off with meaningless name calling. Why don't you just tell me where Zelda is and I promise to not break your ribs before taking you to the Guard."

Steve's eyes looked up fearfully into mine. "Hold up real quick." Dette's voice sounded behind me. "If he just wanted revenge on you why am I here?" I turned towards her realizing too late that Steve wasn't the real threat when I felt something sharp pierce the back of my neck. I saw Dette flinch forward and slide from her saddle before blacking out.


	3. Chapter 3

Part Three

I woke up with a splitting head ache. My eyes were crusted over with salt spray from the ocean that I could smell all around me. My stomach turned with the motion of the rocking boat I was on. I jerked in to an upright position and ran to the rail of the boat to empty my stomach. Having been on many boats, sea sickness isn't a very common occurrence for me, but having been drugged I couldn't spill my guts fast enough. My binder made it difficult to get a deep enough breath without it cutting into my skin, but I didn't care I needed the air.

I looked down into the water after emptying my stomach and was surprised by how clear it was. I could see at least 20 feet down, colorful fish swam lazily near the boats hull. I looked up at the horizon and saw nothing but water, I spun around and quickly to the other side of the boat, I looked down at the hull trying to find the ships name. All I could see was strange squiggles and dots that seemed to swim in my vision. "It's wizard writing." Dette's voice sounded over my shoulder. I turned around and stared at her, "My dad was a wizard," she said with a sigh, looking down at her sandals, "he used to stay up all hours of the night trying to find some spell that would make him powerful enough to kill you."

Her eyes were full of sorrow, like a little girl who just wanted her father's attention. "Dette…" I whispered reaching out to touch her shoulder.

She flinched away from me with a glare, "Anyway, it says 'The Gladiator' I'm guessing it's a slave trade ship," she turned to look around at the deck of the ship, "see the cages and the chains, thats probably where they chain their prisoners up when they make them exercise." I looked around at what she was pointing out, wondering how she knew all these things. "My father used to threaten our servants saying that he would sell them to the Karnam slave traders if they ever stepped out of line."

I turned to stare at her, "What'd you say?"

She looked at me like I was acting strange, "My father used to threaten our servants…"

I held my hand up, "What is Karnam?" My heart was racing, Karnam was the place that my parents had put on their immigration records, I'd been looking for years for any mention of this mysterious place.

Dette looked at me with that peculiar expression again, and leaned against the railing of 'The Gladiator'. "Well," she sighed, "Karnam is the only desert city to survive 'The Fall'." She turned towards the sea and took hold of her wildly waving hair, "Technically Karnam is an island which is why it survived, the sea kept most of the Shadow Beasts away, but the ones that weren't stopped were the strongest so the people of Karnam are now known to be exceptionally adept warriors."

"What was that about the slave trade?" I asked feeling rage build up inside me. Having been in chains way to many times for less then fun reasons, the idea of anyone having to spend their life in captivity sickened me.

Dette sat down with a sigh, "It's mostly prostitution, male and female, but there is also a trade for their religion. Usually it's just the ones that are 'ugly' or some how damaged that are sold to the temples." I looked down towards her and decided to sit dow as well. I didn't sit near her knowing that she would have quite a problem with that, but i did move so that the salty sea spray wasn't blowing into my face. "Their religion is disgusting," she said with venom, "they have one of the biggest Shadow Beasts still alive captured and chained up in a dungeon and they bleed it everyday to make sure it doesn't have enough fight left for a proper defense." She rubbed her nose with her hand before continuing with sad eyes, "They take the blood from the monster and force feed it to the slaves."

I looked at her with astonishment, "What happens to them?" I whispered to mortified to speak clearly.

She had opened her mouth to answer when we heard the hull door open. We looked over at the loud grinding noise and saw a black skinned man in black clothes and a mask on holding a glass jar walk out. "Get up." he said with deep rumbling voice. We stood before him sizing him up, I'd taken on bigger foes, but always with my weapons. I didn't know what exactly Dette could handle, but maybe if she didn't need anything particularly special to work her magic she could probably make this an even fight. "Hullo Dette." the man said, taking the cloth from over his mouth.

I looked at Dette shocked, she looked just as stunned but when the big man's face was finally revealed a huge grin formed on her face making her look stunning. I'd never seen her smile with actual joy before, it was almost as shocking as the knowledge that she knew slavers personally. "Lem!" she shouted before launching herself at the dark behemoth, "What're you doing on a boat?" she said while 'Lem' spun her around in a circle.

He set her down like one would a small flower, "I took this job to see you." he said smiling back at her. He looked back at the open door and lowered his large frame and his booming voice, "You're in a ton of trouble little imp." She scoffed with slightly forced bravado, "No I'm serious." Lem said gripping her shoulder gently. "The King is after you and you're friend over there."

"We're not friends." I said quietly at the same time Dette said, "What does his Royal Pain want with that loser?" We looked at each other, me with shock, and her with contempt.

Lem looked at the two of us and shook his head; "He wants words about his marriage proposal with you Dette, and with you…" he looked at me slightly at a loss.

"Link." I supplied.

"Right, and with you Link," he paused as if trying to grow accustomed to the name, "He wants to make sure you're not a threat to his stolen throne." I looked at him not comprehending. Dette was staring at him with the same expression, Lem looked between the two of us and understanding dawned on his face. "You don't know do you?" We shook our heads, "Your pal is the lost child Dette." Disbelief washed over her face and she turned to scrutinize me.

"That's not possible." she said at last turning back to Lem, "The lost child had white hair, not blonde and it was a she, not a he." She hand waved over my body as if to say, that's a dude you dummy.

Lem looked at me with a grim stare that seemed to be apologetic, "You're not really a boy are you, Link?"

I looked back and forth at both of them, I could feel my body betraying me by sending blood rushing to my face staining my cheeks red with shame. I crossed my arms over my chest, "I am a 'real' boy just because I don't have a dick doesn't make me less of a man." I glared at Dette and Lem; Dette's shocked face only angered me more. "Listen Dette, I'm a girl in body, but I've been a boy in society and in mind for as long as I can remember, and I have no idea who this man takes me for."

Dette looked at me and then swallowed, "The person Lem thinks you are is the daughter of the old king and queen of Karnam. They ran from Leck, the mad man who stole the throne. The story goes that a servant warned them of Leck's plan and helped the king and queen escape on to a slaver's boat with their daughter."

Lem opened the glass jar and Navi flew out pink with rage. She flew in and around his face chattering angrily then swooped over and sat on my shoulder with a huff. "What's been going on, I couldn't hear anything in that stupid glass jar."

I lifted my hand for her to step on to and looked down at her, "Navi who am I?"

She looked up at me shocked, and then turned slightly, "What kind of question is that," she said not looking at me, "you're Link, protector of Princess Zelda." she kept her head turned away from me and crossed her arms in front of her defensively.

"You know who I am, you were with me when my parents ran from Karnam weren't you?" I used the tip of my pointer finger to turn her face to look at me.

I could see the anger, desperation, and then relief cross her face as she processed what I seemed to already know. "They told you huh?" she said waving her arm to encompass Lem and Dette. I nodded and she sighed, "You're the daughter of the old king and queen of Karnam who fled from Leck the Usurper."


End file.
